In English, our traditional parting phrase is "goodbye."  I'm not sure what exactly this means, but that's the way it is.  However, if you translate the English "goodbye" into Spanish, you get adios, which means, literally, "to God."  The same holds for French's adieu.  Why have we ceased commending our loved ones to God with every parting?  Why have we secularized these good wishes?  Of course, I'm sure there are atheist Spaniards and Hispanics who still say adios, but the background is there.  It's a cultural thing...  In emotional partings, we typically make do with a firmer handshake, or a tighter hug, and a "take care."  I much prefer the Spanish Vaya con Dios.  How much better it is to bid your loved ones to go with God than to tell them to take care...

Why is it that in English we have secularized our good wishes?  People used to say "God speed."  Now we say "bye."  Even though Spanish people say hasta luego, hasta la vista, and nos vemos, they have retained the more formal and traditional form -- adios.  In French, as well, they have a host of goodbyes: au revoir, ciao (And yes, I know ciao is Italian, but they use it in French as well), salut, bon voyage, bon chance, and even the long-winded a teut a l'heure.  Yet still they have and use adieu, perhaps the most powerful of the bunch.  Why the difference between the Romance languages and English?

Especially in painful goodbyes, it seems like it would be useful to have some equivalent in English that you could use without anyone thinking you're pretentious, hoity-toity (sp?), maudlin, or melodramatic.  I suppose you could get away with saying, "I've never liked saying 'goodbye,' so I'll say 'God speed.'"  Or replace "God speed" with adios or adieu, but even though most people would understand that both mean "goodbye," they probably wouldn't understand the deeper meaning.

On other news, I've started re-reading Sylvia Plath.  Anyone who took Human Sit in team Phi (that's what it was in Antiquity, I can't remember what it was for Modernity, but anyone will remember the inimitable Drs. Moore, Hass, Freeland, Marenchin, and especially Rothschild) back in Spring 2001 will remember Plath.  Probably not as favorably as do I, but at least you guys know what I'm talking about.  It just occurred to me...  Out of the professors I listed there, only one still works for The Honors College.  Damn, I feel old.  (c;